11/26/09

11/23/09

I picked up this bag of 80 wooden blocks about 6 months ago from a thift store for .50cents. I had no plan what I was going to use them for, but for .50cents I couldn't pass them up. Anywho, the blocks have been in and out of the "donation" bag for these past few months off and on-- so I thought I'd better think of something to use them for or out they go-- for real this time! I also picked up this wooden box with a hinged lid..... hmmmm then it hit me. duh~

Stringing beads!! Soooooo I drilled a hole in each one of them. Some are perfect :-) some not so perfect :-P but whoop-dee-doo right? After drilling holes in each one, I painted them with a flat black spray paint. Next comes the fun part~ I purchased these Disney Car stickers from Walmart for a dollar-- scanned them onto my computer, (I am so going to jail right?) printed them out itsy-bitsy size, cut each one out --- 160 in total (thank goodness I love to cut!) ... and then glued one onto each side of each block. Then I gave each block a coat of clear gloss. I painted the box black and added some car stickers and coated that with clear gloss as well. Now my grandson can lace them up to his hearts content.... so fun! Whew, a lot of work, but look how darn caute they are!

The other 40 are for my grandaughter, Chloe. For her set, I'm using Tinkerbell. I've got awhile before I'm needing to finish those up, she is only 10 months old~

Kimm is hosting a trash to treasure party on her blog: Reinvented... go check it out~ Kimba over at A soft Place to Land is also hosting a linky party~

11/19/09

Well, I never thought I would get this garage finished... what a lot of time went into this! Anywho, enough moaning & groaning, its finished and I'm happy with it!

Here is the before and after photos.

I created the brick using illustration board. I've blogged about how I made the brick here. I used real grout to set the brick into place. I made a drawer under the garage floor by cutting off a piece of the wood base and adding foam core to create the drawer. Perfect for holding all the odds & ends that the garage is going to be needing. I've managed to pick up all of whats shown in the drawer from garage sales. I used a wheel for the drawer pull~

I used illustration board for the roof as well. I cut 1 inch by 1-1/2 inch pieces using my paper cutter and hot glued that in place all over the existing roof and then just painted it with nutmeg brown paint. For the inside I painted the walls white and used black & white checkered fabric for trim on the walls. Here is the down stairs.....The photo below is the upstairs~ I created the false wall using foam core. Those little cubbies will hold 5 cars.I printed the car signs off of the web by googling "car signs" The neon sign that says "Hot Rod Garage" was found on a site that makes & sells neon signs, I just printed it out and cut it close to the image and glued it in place. I've still got a little bit more I'm wanting to do to this little garage. The door openings are the perfect size for a hot wheel track to fit inside of... I think it would be so neat to be able to have a car zoom out of the second story window, so I'm needing to make some supports for the tracks. Geeze, I can always think of more to do can't I.... anything to get out of housework!

You can also see more Show & Tells over at Cindy's blog "My Romantic Home" If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more, just click right here!

11/16/09

thats how many projects I've got going on right now. A bazillion. Here is one that is almost near compleation... my grandson's garage. I've painted it inside and out (slight touch ups needed) added a roof, and laid the brick and grouted that. I added the name "Hot Rod Garage" in neon lights, nothing but the best for my grandson! I've even added a drawer to the underside of the garage to hold those all important car things~ (drawer not pictured)Now, comes the fun part, decorating the inside! I am trying to get this finished for this Fridays "Show & Tell" Its always nice to have a goal in mind... ignites that little flame under my butt~ I'll go into more detail of what I used, how I did it on Fridays post if anyone is interested.Here is a photo of my grandson hiding in the base of my hall tree that I converted the bottom into a cat bed-- that they refuse to use~ Here is a link to that post...Ohhhhhhhh well... at least its getting used now!

11/11/09

I picked up this miniature doll house at a second hand store for $6.I thought I could turn it into a garage for my 2 1/2 year old grandson to play with with his zillion and one match box cars. I'm wanting an old looking building with brick on the outside and maybe a brick floor as well. So of course, I'm needing some brick! I bought some illustration board which I cut into 1 x 1/2 inch pieces (This is not to scale, so for you purest miniature doll house builders-- sowwy) and painted them to look like brick. Obviously you wouldn't want to paint each one-- one by one... so I ran some glue down some sheets of paper and glued the "bricks" to that and just base coated everything with some terra cotta paint....Then a layer of sponged on black paint....then a layer of sponged on white paint...Taaaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Brick! Now I've got to put the brick on the building. I'll just use regular elmers glue for that. Once that is finished and dried, I'll use real grout to morter the brick onto the building. (I've done this before, and it works beautifully!) Stay tuned for that part of the construction!

11/10/09

Well, I finally finished this years Christmas stockings. I used a white embossed coverlet for the main fabric and I went with a pink insert for the inside of the stockings. I really love how they turned out! Simple, clean & shabby-ish~ I picked up these pearl letters at Michaels for $1 each. They have them every year in the dollar section. Of course, I can never just leave anything alone for long-- I may add a cuff to them~ maybe next year instead of making new stockings, I'll add the cuff! But for now, I've hot glued roses onto hair clippies covered with ribbon for a little soft touch above each letter. I think I'll make a bunch of little stockings to pass out to friends as well!

11/9/09

Here is another tasty easy-peasy recipe. It is a take off of Monkey bread. Well.... I made it into Monkey muffins! I used an apple slicer to cut up the biscuits into little cute bits which I then placed into muffin cups. Here is the recipe:

Monkey Muffins~4 tubes refrigerated biscuit dough (get the cheapest)2/3 cup white sugar1 teaspoon ground cinnamon2/3 cup brown sugar1/2 cup butter or margarine1 teaspoon vanillaMix 2/3 cup white sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a bowl. Open 1 can of biscuits and using one of those apple cutters that cuts and cores an apple into 8ths... cut each biscuit. I placed two cut up biscuits at a time into the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Once those were tossed and totally covered with the sugar and cinnamon I placed the biscuit bits into one muffin cup. So, two biscuits equal one muffin...(my muffins are biggins!) If your wanting a normal sized muffin, I would suggest only putting about 1 & 1/2 of one biscuit into each muffin cup. One biscuit per muffin cup would work as well... but then you'd just have to eat twice as many now wouldn't you~ Do this for all the remaining biscuits. Once the muffins cups are filled, bring to a boil the butter and the brown sugar and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Spoon the butter/sugar over the biscuit pieces-- it was about 1 tablespoon per muffin cup. I also added walnuts on top of each muffin... might as well right?Heat up your oven at 350 degrees and bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Sure the paper sticks to the muffin here and there... but just consider that exercise while your eating it. Good thinking huh~

11/7/09

Look at all these boxes of fa-reeeeee stuff I got today. Box upon box of neat craft stuff that I'm needing to sort through.....I went to a yard sale that had just wrapped up and the gal said, "Take what you want, its freeeeeeee" -- so, of course I did! Just take a peek inside some of these boxes... holy-moly! I didn't dig deep into each box, I just peeked and placed them in my truck! Whatever I don't want I'm going to donate to one of our local thrift stores :-)I'm never going to get my Christmas stockings finished as I've got all of this fun stuff to sort through!Unused patterns, paint, flowers, straw hats, bells, new stuffed animals, crocheted trim, ribbons, fabric, velvet, wooden things, floss, glue sticks, stickers, markers, transfers thats just what I've come across so far! Free, freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, faaaaaaaa-reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

11/5/09

Gooooooooooooodness....November already??? But-but-I'm not ready for it to be NOVEMBER! I've got a zillion things in various stages of compleation~ oh who am I kidding, I keep starting things and stopping them the very same day! Personally I think it is low blood sugar as I'm trying to watch my calorie/fat/lard intake so I can really load up at Thanksgiving. Don't even think there is going to be anything green or healthy on my plate that day. Anywho, I started making new Christmas stockings, (I do this every year) I only need 6 and I'm making 8-- thats just how I roll. I'm using a white embossed coverlet that I picked up for $2 at a yard sale. It smells like bleach, one of my favorite fragrances. I do tend to work best under pressure, but I'm trying to ween myself from that wild lifestyle. I mustGet things done.... but for now-- I'm going to bed~

11/2/09

Well I have finally finished the banner for over my grandkids baby crib in the nursery at my house for when they need a nap whenever I babysit them. It reads...I used some shaggy yarn that is so popular-- yet soooooooo hard to crochet with (at least for me) One of my girlfriends uses this yarn all the time but combines it with regular yarn, so I did the same with fabulous results! I crocheted a long chain and hung the banner from that, with some of the stringy/shaggy yarn hanging between each pennant. Love-love-love how it looks! Here is a close up of one of two fabric flowers I made. I had originally made 10 flowers for the banner but decided they were to big to use all 10.Here is a long view of the banner... I really like it, it looks like a celebration! Ehhhhhhh gawds... Look at the mess I've made! I pulled out some presents from ONE of my many-many gift closets that I'm needing to start wrapping up for Christmas. I'm slightly overwhelmed~ 'cause this is just the tip of the ice berg. It seems I've already bought 4 Barbie's for my 9 month old grandaughter :-P

Have you ever made your own return labels? Oh my goodness they are so easy to make with your very own computer and printer. I often find loads of blank return label sheets at yard sales and I always buy them. I've even seen them for sale at the dollar store. Anywho, if you go to Avery.com they have all kinds of templates that you can use for free. Now, of course, they want you to use the brand that they sell, but I've used different brands and they all work just fine! You can print in color or just black... even add some clipart or a monogram! They also have free templates for business cards, greeting cards, mailing labels and even some craft ideas as well. Well worth checking out the website and trying a few for yourself~ I must go print off some more labels!

11/1/09

I picked up this metal cherub at a second hand store this past Wednesday for $1.99. Isn't it adorable! The part that you hang this cherub from is missing, who knows what it looked like... but I figured I could fix it. I mixed up a few tablespoons of cement and poured that into the hole (I previously stuffed the hole with paper so that the cement would only go down about 2 inches) and set an eye hook into the cement and let it dry.Once the cement had hardened, I spray painted the entire thing with flat white paint. Once that was dry, I used nutmeg brown paint to bring out some of the detail and to give it an aged look. I then covered the molded metal drapery that the cherub was hanging from with pink fabric. I covered the wings with real white feathers and down feathers. I also added a wreath of small yellow flowers to the cherubs head and taaaaa daaaaaa instant caute! This photo doesn't do it justice, the feathers arch with the wings, and the painted aged patina isn't so obnoxious --in person it is so cute! Caute! Just look at that cherubs face, adorable!! I think a true angel posed for this cherub statue~I've got this little darling hanging in my bathroom from a ceiling hook that was doing nothing but bothering me! I added about 8 inches of chain to the eye hook and covered the whole length with more of the same pink fabric so it does indeed look like the cherub is holding on to the fabric and just dangling there...I used hot glue to attach the feathers, fabric and wreath. It came together really fast once the cement hardened up. Not to shabby for $1.99~You can see more Before & Afters over at the blog "Thrifty Decor Chick" blog. Kimba is hosting a D.I.Y. linky party over at her blog "A Soft Place to Land" go check out everyones projects. There is also a Trash to Treasure linky party over at the blog "Reinvented" well worth a lookie-lou~If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more you can click right here.

I am a mixed media artist. I love to sew, embroider, crochet and create things using vintage objects. I love: old classic cars, vintage fabrics, old buttons, cats, shabby chic furniture & linens.... chewing gum, diet pepsi, sneakers, chocolate and gardening~ I like to rummage through thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales and the occasional curbside trash pile. I don't mind getting dirty for treasures! I like to repurpose found objects throughout my home and garden.